Renal Failure and Antibiotics

To the Editor: I was interested in the article by Beaufils et al. (N Engl J Med 295:185–189, 1976) focusing attention on acute renal failure of glomerular origin occurring in patients with visceral abscesses. However, I missed an account of the treatment of the patients' abscesses — in particular, a listing of which antibiotics they received. Since antibiotics are a well known cause of renal failure, this variable needs to be explicitly evaluated in any attempt to understand the nature of the observed association between abscesses and renal failure. No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.